Friday, March 7. 2008
Nearing first alpha, and lots of cool new stuff
Its been little while since I wrote a nice long update about the state of Amarok 2, and we have been getting a few complaints that there is not enough ews being posted, so I will try to remedy that here. And I have a nice pile of screenshots ready for you! 
First up though, we have decided to put a feature freeze in effect starting at the end of this month. This is the first small step towards an eventual release of Amarok 2.0, and hopefully it will help us get it ready sooner rather than later. This also means that we are at the point where bug reports actually start to become useful. More on this in the coming weeks I am sure!
So, whats new in the land of Amarok 2. Lots actually. First of all, I have tried my hand at some small but quite visible modifications to our svg theme, and I personally thinks the results are very prommising. I just need to figure out what do do about the volume slider...
And of course, the theme still adjusts itself to the system color theme:
At Magnatune.com, we have been adding free ogg streams along side the existing mp3 streams. Of course Amarok should also benefit from this, so I finally got around to implementing a stream selection GUI. This also allows people with slow or unstable internet connections to select the lofi mp3 streams:
I think I can reveal, that as an added bonus, people who decide to purchase one of Magnatune.com's upcoming memberships will be able to enjoy ogg streams in a really nice quality
A lot of work has gone into the last.fm service and integration. The bulk of the Amarok 2 last.fm service was originally done by Shane King, but this week there has almost been a competition about who could do the most cool things with the last.fm service. This however also led to a slight case of "interface wars" as we currently cannot decide between buttons and tree views for the different streams, but I am sure we will figure something out eventually Right now the last.fm service looks ( I am warning you, it is not pretty... ) like this:
A really nice feature that was implemented by Dan Meltzer ( aka. Hydrogen ) is the ability to right click any artist in your local collection and add a last.fm stream of simmilar artists directly to the playlist:
I have spent some time adding capabilities that will allow any track or stream with special actions that only makes sense when that track or stream is playing to make these actions available throughout the interface. Most notably, when listening to a last.fm stream it adds the "love", "skip" and "ban" actions to a small sub toolbar next to the play controls:
This small toolbar and the background is completely invisible when playing tracks that do not have any special "now playing" actions. The same actions are also added to the tray menu ( and when right clicking the currently playing track in the playlist ):
Last.fm is becoming really well integrated, but the great thing about the way it is done is that there is almost no last.fm specific code anywhere but in the last.fm plugin, which can be completely disabled. This means that any other service can use the same interface elements to achieve simmilar results. Last.fm is simply the first one to use these capabilities. It also means that Amarok 2 is in no way dependent on last.fm being available. I think that this independence is very important. It allows us to work with many different services and companies without anyone getting control over the core of Amarok.
And this is personally what I see as the main strong point of Amarok 2. We are positioning ourselves to be able to work with and integrate content and services from a multitude of sources without the fear of what happens if one of these services stops existing, turns horrendously evil, or tries to assert undue influence over the direction of Amarok. And with reports coming in from our crew at Cebit about the huge interest in Amarok, it looks to be a really interesting future.
Now, if we can just get this 2.0 out the door soon....
First up though, we have decided to put a feature freeze in effect starting at the end of this month. This is the first small step towards an eventual release of Amarok 2.0, and hopefully it will help us get it ready sooner rather than later. This also means that we are at the point where bug reports actually start to become useful. More on this in the coming weeks I am sure!
So, whats new in the land of Amarok 2. Lots actually. First of all, I have tried my hand at some small but quite visible modifications to our svg theme, and I personally thinks the results are very prommising. I just need to figure out what do do about the volume slider...
And of course, the theme still adjusts itself to the system color theme:
At Magnatune.com, we have been adding free ogg streams along side the existing mp3 streams. Of course Amarok should also benefit from this, so I finally got around to implementing a stream selection GUI. This also allows people with slow or unstable internet connections to select the lofi mp3 streams:
I think I can reveal, that as an added bonus, people who decide to purchase one of Magnatune.com's upcoming memberships will be able to enjoy ogg streams in a really nice quality
A lot of work has gone into the last.fm service and integration. The bulk of the Amarok 2 last.fm service was originally done by Shane King, but this week there has almost been a competition about who could do the most cool things with the last.fm service. This however also led to a slight case of "interface wars" as we currently cannot decide between buttons and tree views for the different streams, but I am sure we will figure something out eventually
Right now the last.fm service looks ( I am warning you, it is not pretty... ) like this:
A really nice feature that was implemented by Dan Meltzer ( aka. Hydrogen ) is the ability to right click any artist in your local collection and add a last.fm stream of simmilar artists directly to the playlist:
I have spent some time adding capabilities that will allow any track or stream with special actions that only makes sense when that track or stream is playing to make these actions available throughout the interface. Most notably, when listening to a last.fm stream it adds the "love", "skip" and "ban" actions to a small sub toolbar next to the play controls:
This small toolbar and the background is completely invisible when playing tracks that do not have any special "now playing" actions. The same actions are also added to the tray menu ( and when right clicking the currently playing track in the playlist ):
Last.fm is becoming really well integrated, but the great thing about the way it is done is that there is almost no last.fm specific code anywhere but in the last.fm plugin, which can be completely disabled. This means that any other service can use the same interface elements to achieve simmilar results. Last.fm is simply the first one to use these capabilities. It also means that Amarok 2 is in no way dependent on last.fm being available. I think that this independence is very important. It allows us to work with many different services and companies without anyone getting control over the core of Amarok.
And this is personally what I see as the main strong point of Amarok 2. We are positioning ourselves to be able to work with and integrate content and services from a multitude of sources without the fear of what happens if one of these services stops existing, turns horrendously evil, or tries to assert undue influence over the direction of Amarok. And with reports coming in from our crew at Cebit about the huge interest in Amarok, it looks to be a really interesting future.
Now, if we can just get this 2.0 out the door soon....
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I've been really skeptical about Amarok's playlist and theme earlier but now I'm really excited. SVN trunk is looking great, the only thing I'd love would be the ability to hide the middle pane but no big deal.
Good work guys and look forward to the release!
Good work guys and look forward to the release!
You can freely resize all 3 panels and thus completely hide the central context view.
Awesome, I will be looking forward to that. Just look for the tall, long haired guy in the Amarok t-shirt!
This is looking awesome! I will soon be one step closer to switching to KDE 4, keep up the great work!
Looks super sweet. I am so much more looking forward to Amarok 2.
I have a suggestion for the volume bar. Maybe you can shrink the song time bar (but keep it centered) under the curved line and use the new space on the right to put the volume bar at. Volume bars curve matches the curve line above. You can put something similar like song rating bar on the left side of the time bar.
I have a suggestion for the volume bar. Maybe you can shrink the song time bar (but keep it centered) under the curved line and use the new space on the right to put the volume bar at. Volume bars curve matches the curve line above. You can put something similar like song rating bar on the left side of the time bar.
The screenshots look great! Just my $0.02 on the volume slider: I was thinking it would look good on the left above the curved line, also following its curve. But Moshin's suggestion may be better since the time bar looks long to me also.
I think that it would be better to place the volume slider next to playback buttons. I think we can take inspiration from WMP 11 which has a very nice design IMO - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/images/international/mp11/wmp11_playback_controls.jpg
I would suggest to make the button design similar to this. And the progressbar should be also changed. But I don't have any idea how.
Also one question. Do you plan adding a library filter similar to that one of Winamp, iTunes, foobar2000 (facets), Rythmbox, Listen, Quod Libet or Songbird. I mean the 3 columns where you can filter your collection by genre, artist and album. It is much more powerful and comfortable then the current tree-like browser.
Also support for multiple playlists (like foobar2000) would be great. I know it is now too late for such changes, but maybe in some future versions?
I would suggest to make the button design similar to this. And the progressbar should be also changed. But I don't have any idea how.
Also one question. Do you plan adding a library filter similar to that one of Winamp, iTunes, foobar2000 (facets), Rythmbox, Listen, Quod Libet or Songbird. I mean the 3 columns where you can filter your collection by genre, artist and album. It is much more powerful and comfortable then the current tree-like browser.
Also support for multiple playlists (like foobar2000) would be great. I know it is now too late for such changes, but maybe in some future versions?
No, i think that the tree-collection-browser is one of the great advantages of Amarok.
Amarok should stay different from other players (if not, i can already hear the trolls saying "it just a copy of WMP/WinAmp/whatever") and it's one of the "killer-applications" without a windows pendant that made me switch to GNU/Linux.
Amarok should stay different from other players (if not, i can already hear the trolls saying "it just a copy of WMP/WinAmp/whatever") and it's one of the "killer-applications" without a windows pendant that made me switch to GNU/Linux.
I didn't say anything about copying entire WMP. I just it has a good buttons layout and the buttons also look nice. That's all.
I also didn't say anything about removing the tree-collection-browser. I can imagine some people like it. But I don't. Filtering in columns is much more comfortable and powerful. For example imagine I want to create a playlist containing all my songs from The Beatles, The Byrds and The Hollies. In columns selector you can do it with 3 clicks.
A lot of players is using this type of media library filtering because people like it. Other players use a tree browser. Beside AmaroK, you can find this type of navigation in aTunes, Jajuk, Exaile and other players.
Only one player I know can offer both. It's foobar2000. Here is how my own configuration looks like: http://img402.imageshack.us/my.php?image=foobar2000kg4.png or http://img101.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fb2k2hn9.png
This player is one of the main reasons why I still use mainly Windows. AmaroK is no doubt the best player for Linux. But it still lacks plenty of features of foobar2000.
I always hate is somebody says something about copying softwares. If an alternative program has a nice feature, whats wrong on implementing it in my application (unless it is patented)?
Copy the best from all the players around there and you will have the best player. If you refuse to implement a feature just because other players have the same option, you will make the worst player of all. It's that simple.
I also didn't say anything about removing the tree-collection-browser. I can imagine some people like it. But I don't. Filtering in columns is much more comfortable and powerful. For example imagine I want to create a playlist containing all my songs from The Beatles, The Byrds and The Hollies. In columns selector you can do it with 3 clicks.
A lot of players is using this type of media library filtering because people like it. Other players use a tree browser. Beside AmaroK, you can find this type of navigation in aTunes, Jajuk, Exaile and other players.
Only one player I know can offer both. It's foobar2000. Here is how my own configuration looks like: http://img402.imageshack.us/my.php?image=foobar2000kg4.png or http://img101.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fb2k2hn9.png
This player is one of the main reasons why I still use mainly Windows. AmaroK is no doubt the best player for Linux. But it still lacks plenty of features of foobar2000.
I always hate is somebody says something about copying softwares. If an alternative program has a nice feature, whats wrong on implementing it in my application (unless it is patented)?
Copy the best from all the players around there and you will have the best player. If you refuse to implement a feature just because other players have the same option, you will make the worst player of all. It's that simple.
I agree with you on the volume bar regarding where to put it. It'll look great.
Nicolai
Nicolai
Is there any news about the media devices such as ipod?
Can we use them already or we have to wait?
Anyway, good great job!!! loving it!
Can we use them already or we have to wait?
Anyway, good great job!!! loving it!
Yeah, using the IPod would be great! First i was really pissed off because Apple locked out the Linux users by using a hash in the IPod-Library, but fortunately there is a crack for this:
http://digg.com/linux_unix/New_Ipod_Hash_Cracked_Linux_Supported_Once_Again
so the chances are good that IPod-Support for newer IPods will work!
http://digg.com/linux_unix/New_Ipod_Hash_Cracked_Linux_Supported_Once_Again
so the chances are good that IPod-Support for newer IPods will work!
Any information or code sceleton for scripting in Amarok 2?
When will we be able to develop extensions?
BTW thanks for letting me respond without having to create an account!
When will we be able to develop extensions?
BTW thanks for letting me respond without having to create an account!
Amarok 2 uses C++ plugins all over the place. So yea you can add extensions to do all sorts of things.
Scripting in 2.0 looks like it'll be just like scripting in 1.4.
Scripting in 2.0 looks like it'll be just like scripting in 1.4.
Is there support for adding richness to radio streams? I just wondered as I saw this post from BBC radio labs and it looks great and is quite useful (eg lyrics and upcoming gigs list fetched)
www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radiolabs/2008/02/nowplaying_a_visualising_rad.shtml
and their implementation of the idea is at
dell.welcomebackstage.com/music/bbcnowplaying/index.php?networkId=radio1
www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radiolabs/2008/02/nowplaying_a_visualising_rad.shtml
and their implementation of the idea is at
dell.welcomebackstage.com/music/bbcnowplaying/index.php?networkId=radio1
little suggestion for improvement:
1) Please write "lo-fi mp3" instead "Lofi mp3" (look at the third picture).
Better you write "lofi mp3 (64 kbps)" so everybody knows how low the stream is.
2) The volume control (first picture) overlaps the blue line. This is suboptimal.
3.) The covers looks like foreign material. A frame or a little shadow on the right side of the small images would integrate the pictures in the GUI.
1) Please write "lo-fi mp3" instead "Lofi mp3" (look at the third picture).
Better you write "lofi mp3 (64 kbps)" so everybody knows how low the stream is.
2) The volume control (first picture) overlaps the blue line. This is suboptimal.
3.) The covers looks like foreign material. A frame or a little shadow on the right side of the small images would integrate the pictures in the GUI.
1) Good point!
2) I know, I think I even wrote that I have some issues with the volume slider in the blog
3) which album cover are we talking about? ( Browser, playlist, context applet? )
2) I know, I think I even wrote that I have some issues with the volume slider in the blog
3) which album cover are we talking about? ( Browser, playlist, context applet? )
I'm talking about the both CD Covers on the right side of picture one (and picture two).
Thanks for treating us users so well in blogs, and also your comments. The program is amazing, but the way you treat us is also amazing...
Thanks you for the kind words, I really appreciate it.
This is my little corner of the web for showing off things that I think are cool, and I feel lucky that people actually find it interesting enough to read it and leave comments. And that makes me want to answer people personally when they leave comments, questions or ideas.
This is my little corner of the web for showing off things that I think are cool, and I feel lucky that people actually find it interesting enough to read it and leave comments. And that makes me want to answer people personally when they leave comments, questions or ideas.
We are pondering something along those lines, but is we go down that route, we really need to come up with a nicer progress slider as well...
Personally, I think that a curvy progress slider that is wider at the ends than the middle might look good. Whether it would be usable is another matter completely.
Some thing shaped roughly like this:
}}}}>>>>~-~
Personally, I think that a curvy progress slider that is wider at the ends than the middle might look good. Whether it would be usable is another matter completely.
Some thing shaped roughly like this:
}}}}>>>>~-~
Damn, it killed half my ascii art... anyway, make that thing symmetrical and you have my original illustration.
Its just an idea I am playing with.
Its just an idea I am playing with.
Looks sweet! The only thing I am not too sure about is the blue lines everywhere. Maybe skipping those would make the interface even nicer? Then again, I am not a designer.
Thats the thing, neither am I
However, I started out not having the blue curves, and I fond the "grayness" a bit overwhelming. In my oppinion, the blue ( or highlight color in general at is it not always blue in other color themes ) helps a lot by adding just a touch of color and breaking up the gray into more "esthetically manageable" ( did I just invent a new term? ) pieces.
Or maybe I am just talking nonsense as I really am not a designer, nor a graphics artist. Of all the things I have tried, I do like the new theme the most though.
However, I started out not having the blue curves, and I fond the "grayness" a bit overwhelming. In my oppinion, the blue ( or highlight color in general at is it not always blue in other color themes ) helps a lot by adding just a touch of color and breaking up the gray into more "esthetically manageable" ( did I just invent a new term?
) pieces.Or maybe I am just talking nonsense as I really am not a designer, nor a graphics artist. Of all the things I have tried, I do like the new theme the most though.
Looking at Amarok 2 screen shots I realized that new play list is designed in the way that it groups tracks by album.
But what I should do if I don't want to have my play list grouped by album?
Another question is how many tracks I can see in the new play list? Take a look at
http://polishlinux.org/reviews/kde-4-1-rev-783000/1227ed1fe63fa15e8cffd5b716e67cbb.jpg
Having Amarok 2 in a full screen mode I can see only about 10 tracks from my play list (if they belong to different albums). Are you really think it is good improvement?
All above can be sumarized into one question. Do you really think it is convenient to use new play list in any other use case which differs from listening entire albums???
Another question is about Amarok theme. Yes it is cool that Amarok can be themed using svg themes. But what about visual consistency wit other KDE apps and with KDE in general???
Thanks,
Serg
But what I should do if I don't want to have my play list grouped by album?
Another question is how many tracks I can see in the new play list? Take a look at
http://polishlinux.org/reviews/kde-4-1-rev-783000/1227ed1fe63fa15e8cffd5b716e67cbb.jpg
Having Amarok 2 in a full screen mode I can see only about 10 tracks from my play list (if they belong to different albums). Are you really think it is good improvement?
All above can be sumarized into one question. Do you really think it is convenient to use new play list in any other use case which differs from listening entire albums???
Another question is about Amarok theme. Yes it is cool that Amarok can be themed using svg themes. But what about visual consistency wit other KDE apps and with KDE in general???
Thanks,
Serg
I will try to answer all of your questions.
If you do not have tracks grouped by album, they will be shown as individual tracks. This does take up significantly more vertical space. One of the reasons for this is that we really want to gently encourage people to move away from adding 10.000 tracks to the playlist ( even though, performance wise, the new playlist will actually handle this a lot better than the old one ) and towards using smart and dynamic playlist to populate the playlist and update the tracks here.
Now, this might not work for all use cases which is why, that by clicking the small start button in the bottom right corner ( We need a new icon for this... ) you switch to a much simpler, column based view that looks simmilar to the 1.4.x playlist. You can find screenshots of this in some of my previous blog posts.
But for the way I ( and most of the other Amarok devs ) listen to music, yes, the new playlist is a vast improvement, but for people who don't like it, we have an alternative.
Finally, Amarok 2 is actually not themable using svgs. ( well, technically, we cant stop you from placing new svgs in the instal dir, but it is not something we encourage or support ). The only difference between the two screenshots ( the light and the dark one ) is that I have changed my system color theme. Amarok automatically colors the svgs to match the system colors. In this way, we do fit in really nicely with the normal KDE apps, but also, and this is very important, with apps on Windows, Mac, Gnome, ..., as we always match the system color theme perfectly. This is usually a huge issue with using svgs and images in the user interface as the colors in this graphics might look really out of place in the current environment.
I hope I managed to answer everything. Otherwise, let me know
If you do not have tracks grouped by album, they will be shown as individual tracks. This does take up significantly more vertical space. One of the reasons for this is that we really want to gently encourage people to move away from adding 10.000 tracks to the playlist ( even though, performance wise, the new playlist will actually handle this a lot better than the old one ) and towards using smart and dynamic playlist to populate the playlist and update the tracks here.
Now, this might not work for all use cases which is why, that by clicking the small start button in the bottom right corner ( We need a new icon for this... ) you switch to a much simpler, column based view that looks simmilar to the 1.4.x playlist. You can find screenshots of this in some of my previous blog posts.
But for the way I ( and most of the other Amarok devs ) listen to music, yes, the new playlist is a vast improvement, but for people who don't like it, we have an alternative.
Finally, Amarok 2 is actually not themable using svgs. ( well, technically, we cant stop you from placing new svgs in the instal dir, but it is not something we encourage or support ). The only difference between the two screenshots ( the light and the dark one ) is that I have changed my system color theme. Amarok automatically colors the svgs to match the system colors. In this way, we do fit in really nicely with the normal KDE apps, but also, and this is very important, with apps on Windows, Mac, Gnome, ..., as we always match the system color theme perfectly. This is usually a huge issue with using svgs and images in the user interface as the colors in this graphics might look really out of place in the current environment.
I hope I managed to answer everything. Otherwise, let me know
Is there a strong reason for not making Amarok themable using SVGs? Why is this not encouraged or supported? I think basic theming would help personalize Amarok.
How about dynamic playlists? I didn't find this functionality in SVN builds of Amarok. Will they make it into release?
Dynamic playlists have not been implemented in Amarok 2 yet. But it is on our list of blockers that must be done before we release anything. I am also told that all the needed infrastructure is in place and that adding it should be relatively simple.
Great! Amarok 2 can trick me into gasp stop using MPD!
Or maybe there could be implemented a mode of serving as MPD front-end? With all KDE SVN bugs I don't want my music to stop when I restart KDE And I already written scripts for handling ratings and dynamic playlists for MPD
Or maybe there could be implemented a mode of serving as MPD front-end? With all KDE SVN bugs I don't want my music to stop when I restart KDE
And I already written scripts for handling ratings and dynamic playlists for MPD
I'm sorry for saying this and I know it's not near finished yet, but the design looks absolutely AWFUL. There's no sense of design at all actually.
Way too messy with too many different small detailed stuff together with too many small gradients. Looks like someone playing around with photoshop for the first time.
Remove all that crap, cut it down to zero and add stuff where it fits.
I'm pretty sure there's some accepted rule about having at most one gradient design feature in anything that you do...
Way too messy with too many different small detailed stuff together with too many small gradients. Looks like someone playing around with photoshop for the first time.
Remove all that crap, cut it down to zero and add stuff where it fits.
I'm pretty sure there's some accepted rule about having at most one gradient design feature in anything that you do...
Well then... In that case, please put your time and effort where your mouth is and come up with something that can be generally accepted as being better!
Really, in your current form, your comment is worth less than nothing to us. You provide no details about what exactly it is that you find so horrible ( and no "too many different small detailed stuff together with too many small gradients" does not constitute usable details, you will have to be way more specific than that). You then have to add a nice little sting like "Looks like someone playing around with photoshop for the first time" which is nothing but a personal attack against myself and the other people who have put a lot of time and effort into this. so the only thing your reply achieves is demotivating developers and artists. Hence "Less than nothing"
I am sorry if I sound a bit harsh, but for some reason, people throwing terms like "awful" around in caps without providing any usable comments or critique tend to get on my bad side really quickly. A comment like yours could have been written as: "I don't like the (new) look" - which is basically all you write (and which I can easily live with), even though you write it using way more words and inflammatory statements.
Really, in your current form, your comment is worth less than nothing to us. You provide no details about what exactly it is that you find so horrible ( and no "too many different small detailed stuff together with too many small gradients" does not constitute usable details, you will have to be way more specific than that). You then have to add a nice little sting like "Looks like someone playing around with photoshop for the first time" which is nothing but a personal attack against myself and the other people who have put a lot of time and effort into this. so the only thing your reply achieves is demotivating developers and artists. Hence "Less than nothing"
I am sorry if I sound a bit harsh, but for some reason, people throwing terms like "awful" around in caps without providing any usable comments or critique tend to get on my bad side really quickly. A comment like yours could have been written as: "I don't like the (new) look" - which is basically all you write (and which I can easily live with), even though you write it using way more words and inflammatory statements.
Sorry if my post was upsetting, i could have been a little more delicate.
But what I'm talking about is gradients at currently playing song, some of the widgets, area, the amarok logo at the bottom, the cascade button in the playlist, the volume bar and at the tabs on the side.
The other thing is that there's too many lines all over the place. There's a line dividing the top part in two different colours, another line at the main part of the program and the same kind of lines on each different area in the sidebar.
The two different shades of grey seems to be divided by this line, but it looks very weird when it goes from light grey to dark grey at the top part and then all of a sudden its light grey again. It's not consistent.
In general a design is just lines, and those lines needs to be used wisely, not just spread all over the place.
All in all it makes for a very messy look. As I said, I'm no expert but the brain works in a pretty fixed way when it comes to looking at stuff. For example when you read a news paper the first thing you (or most people at least) look at is, if you imagine the left side of the news paper in six parts numbered 1-6 from top left to bottom right, area number 4. Ie in the middle closest to the middle.
Same goes for program design UI, and a messy design confuses the user.
Another thing, which I just don't like (nothing to do with the design!) is that the normal KDE-widgets found on the desktop are inside a program. Think that looks strange.. The look of the inside-amarok widgets should be separated in some way from the desktop widgets (for example using a much thinner frame on them, also to save space).
Whoa, what a rant. Again, apologies for coming out pretty strong there. I love Amarok, it was the reason i fought for like 5 months with at least 12 different distros trying hard to get at least one working properly around 4 years ago..
Btw. I have seen the Amarok-project looking for artists, in aspects of icons and the likes, but never for people who knows design in general? Might have missed that though. I don't consider myself an expert at all, I don't work with it but i did go "design school" and consider myself having an okay good eye for design as well.. Point is, I think there are people way more suitable to help with design, but if no one better would be willing to help i'm interested in helping.
But what I'm talking about is gradients at currently playing song, some of the widgets, area, the amarok logo at the bottom, the cascade button in the playlist, the volume bar and at the tabs on the side.
The other thing is that there's too many lines all over the place. There's a line dividing the top part in two different colours, another line at the main part of the program and the same kind of lines on each different area in the sidebar.
The two different shades of grey seems to be divided by this line, but it looks very weird when it goes from light grey to dark grey at the top part and then all of a sudden its light grey again. It's not consistent.
In general a design is just lines, and those lines needs to be used wisely, not just spread all over the place.
All in all it makes for a very messy look. As I said, I'm no expert but the brain works in a pretty fixed way when it comes to looking at stuff. For example when you read a news paper the first thing you (or most people at least) look at is, if you imagine the left side of the news paper in six parts numbered 1-6 from top left to bottom right, area number 4. Ie in the middle closest to the middle.
Same goes for program design UI, and a messy design confuses the user.
Another thing, which I just don't like (nothing to do with the design!) is that the normal KDE-widgets found on the desktop are inside a program. Think that looks strange.. The look of the inside-amarok widgets should be separated in some way from the desktop widgets (for example using a much thinner frame on them, also to save space).
Whoa, what a rant. Again, apologies for coming out pretty strong there. I love Amarok, it was the reason i fought for like 5 months with at least 12 different distros trying hard to get at least one working properly around 4 years ago..
Btw. I have seen the Amarok-project looking for artists, in aspects of icons and the likes, but never for people who knows design in general? Might have missed that though. I don't consider myself an expert at all, I don't work with it but i did go "design school" and consider myself having an okay good eye for design as well.. Point is, I think there are people way more suitable to help with design, but if no one better would be willing to help i'm interested in helping.
Much better!
Apology accepted, you just got the Newtonian ( equal but opposite ) reaction from me by posting such strong words.
I see the point in some of your issues. The reason I like the new theme so much, might simply be that it is a lot better than anything we had before. That said, most of the people who have seen it really like it and it is quite functional and simple to render ( does not require too much cpu time ). One thing to keep in mind is that in most usage scenarios, the background of the large central are will hardly be visible as it will be taken up by applets.
If you are interested, we would love for you to try and come up with a consistent theme for all the interface elements. You can either do the svg's directly, or make mockups that we can try to realize. I think we have actually been recruiting all kinds of artists, but for some reason, there are not many professional designers who contribute to open source projects. Be aware that this is quite a large task, and that there is no guarantee that the project as a whole will accept whatever you come up with. at least not on your first try.
With regards to the border and background of the widgets in the context view, this is a bit of a tricky issue. I agree that the large default borders take up way too much space. But on the other hand, as it might be technically possible in the future to drag applets between the Amarok context view and the KDE desktop ( as the applets really are the same thing ) it makes sense to have this consistency
Apology accepted, you just got the Newtonian ( equal but opposite ) reaction from me by posting such strong words.
I see the point in some of your issues. The reason I like the new theme so much, might simply be that it is a lot better than anything we had before. That said, most of the people who have seen it really like it and it is quite functional and simple to render ( does not require too much cpu time ). One thing to keep in mind is that in most usage scenarios, the background of the large central are will hardly be visible as it will be taken up by applets.
If you are interested, we would love for you to try and come up with a consistent theme for all the interface elements. You can either do the svg's directly, or make mockups that we can try to realize. I think we have actually been recruiting all kinds of artists, but for some reason, there are not many professional designers who contribute to open source projects. Be aware that this is quite a large task, and that there is no guarantee that the project as a whole will accept whatever you come up with. at least not on your first try.
With regards to the border and background of the widgets in the context view, this is a bit of a tricky issue. I agree that the large default borders take up way too much space. But on the other hand, as it might be technically possible in the future to drag applets between the Amarok context view and the KDE desktop ( as the applets really are the same thing ) it makes sense to have this consistency
You could try contacting the Mac-Community, it has thousands of good designers and they did a great job when the VLC-team contacted them:
http://macthemes2.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=16783478
Just tell them what amarok is, why it is so awesome and that amarok2 is going to be multiplatform =)
http://macthemes2.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=16783478
Just tell them what amarok is, why it is so awesome and that amarok2 is going to be multiplatform =)
amarok not losing all the files flac, case to the engine because gstreamer the other plays. what is the reason?(amarok1.4.8 kde 3.5.9 mandriva2008 libxine1 1.10.1-5plf xine-plugins1.10.1-5plf)
Amarok cannot play your Flac files, but the other engines can? Is that correctly understood?
excuse me for bad English, convert google translator, yes, xine plays not all of the files flac, all the plays gstreamer
I personally think the design is awesome. I think the volume bar needs to be moved a bit as song said..but aside from that I'm really loving it. I'm using it now..and it's very functional.
Will this new last.fm integration include the ability to play Last.fm group radio streams? The current custom station menu doesn't seem to allow for that.
No,currently it does not, but this is a really great idea!
I will look into it!
I will look into it!
Multiple Collection?
Would it possible with Amarok2 to have multiple collections and easily switch between those? E.g. one collection for Music, one for Audiobooks, one for Radio Plays, maybe one for pods and so on. Because I don't want to mix my music with my audiobooks and they need some kind of different listing in the collection overview. (The simple solution would be to start Amarok2 with different settings, so that the collections could have different paths)
Btw. many thanks for your work on Amarok.
Would it possible with Amarok2 to have multiple collections and easily switch between those? E.g. one collection for Music, one for Audiobooks, one for Radio Plays, maybe one for pods and so on. Because I don't want to mix my music with my audiobooks and they need some kind of different listing in the collection overview. (The simple solution would be to start Amarok2 with different settings, so that the collections could have different paths)
Btw. many thanks for your work on Amarok.
The underlying support for this now exists in Amarok.
However, it's not likely it will be completely implemented for Amarok 2.0
However, it's not likely it will be completely implemented for Amarok 2.0
why does it resemble Quicktime?
I am sorry to sound rude, I do very appreciate Amarok among kde apps, but it seems to me that our Free Software is under curse of imitating look of proprietary apps.
(same as why does Kubuntu 8.04 aplha window decoration imitate Vista style etc etc)
I am sorry to sound rude, I do very appreciate Amarok among kde apps, but it seems to me that our Free Software is under curse of imitating look of proprietary apps.
(same as why does Kubuntu 8.04 aplha window decoration imitate Vista style etc etc)
Quicktime!? That's a new one! We are generally accused of ripping off either iTunes or WMP! 
I cannot speak for anyone but myself here, but as I dont use any other media player apps than Amarok, and I actually have no idea what Quicktime currently looks like, I have no intention of ripping off their look.
In general, the looks of Amarok is based on our collective vision of the application we want to create. We are not actively comparing ourselves to all other apps out there to ensure that we look nothing like any of them, but we are not trying to emulate any of them either.
I think that some interface elements might naturally make the most sense when doing a media player, and thus all players will eventually settle on something simmilar, even though they have arrived at it through different routes. That said, I think that especially our new playlist is going to be quite different from anything else out there... ( But then again, as I don't really look at what is out there, I have no way to be sure )
So yes, if you look hard enough, I am sure you can find similarities between Amarok and any of the other major media players out there, but most of this is most likely caused by the simple fact that they operate within the same domain rather than anyone ripping anyone else off..
I cannot speak for anyone but myself here, but as I dont use any other media player apps than Amarok, and I actually have no idea what Quicktime currently looks like, I have no intention of ripping off their look.
In general, the looks of Amarok is based on our collective vision of the application we want to create. We are not actively comparing ourselves to all other apps out there to ensure that we look nothing like any of them, but we are not trying to emulate any of them either.
I think that some interface elements might naturally make the most sense when doing a media player, and thus all players will eventually settle on something simmilar, even though they have arrived at it through different routes. That said, I think that especially our new playlist is going to be quite different from anything else out there... ( But then again, as I don't really look at what is out there, I have no way to be sure )
So yes, if you look hard enough, I am sure you can find similarities between Amarok and any of the other major media players out there, but most of this is most likely caused by the simple fact that they operate within the same domain rather than anyone ripping anyone else off..
I did not mean the overall UI concept. With those elements one always has to fulfill some user expectations to some degree and there is nothing bad about it. Many applications simply do have similar GUI... As long as we click there will be buttons etc.
I just could not help myself when I first spotted the great smiley-curve across the the window. I haven't seen Quicktime recently but the last time I checked, it had curve just like this one spanning across the player buttons area (this time at the bottom of the window).
This is no big, really, I just thought you should know about it
I just could not help myself when I first spotted the great smiley-curve across the the window. I haven't seen Quicktime recently but the last time I checked, it had curve just like this one spanning across the player buttons area (this time at the bottom of the window).
This is no big, really, I just thought you should know about it
I think it looks more like Listen, but that's cool with me because I love the way Listen is laid out. (Unfortunately it hasn't been updated in forever.)
This looks really cool.
Thanks for posting.
Can't wait to see all the new features in Amarok 2.0
To the comment people posted: Free software usually tends to imitate commercial software at first. It's what people are familiar with. Then once it gains momentum new ideas flourish.
Wait to see some of the cool new animations that will put "cover art" to shame. I can't wait to see one that simulates flipping CD's back and forth at a record store. That would be very intuitive. I haven't had a CD rack in a while. All my CD's are in drawers and boxes, so I just flip them back and forth from the top view.
Keep up the great work guys.
Thanks for posting.
Can't wait to see all the new features in Amarok 2.0
To the comment people posted: Free software usually tends to imitate commercial software at first. It's what people are familiar with. Then once it gains momentum new ideas flourish.
Wait to see some of the cool new animations that will put "cover art" to shame. I can't wait to see one that simulates flipping CD's back and forth at a record store. That would be very intuitive. I haven't had a CD rack in a while. All my CD's are in drawers and boxes, so I just flip them back and forth from the top view.
Keep up the great work guys.
Could you please include a feature like "smart playlists" - but smarter in 2.0?
I'd like the idea of Amarok going through my tons of music and automatically picking similar songs based on the way the song sounds. My ID tags are so out of whack, and the genres either don't exist or are just plain wrong. so sorting by genre is useless.
It would be great if it could hook into a online CD database to get information to make a playlist. (kind of like pandora - but oss friendly.)
I'd like the idea of Amarok going through my tons of music and automatically picking similar songs based on the way the song sounds. My ID tags are so out of whack, and the genres either don't exist or are just plain wrong. so sorting by genre is useless.
It would be great if it could hook into a online CD database to get information to make a playlist. (kind of like pandora - but oss friendly.)
Would it be possible to integrate with last.fm tags? It would be quite interesting to explore your collection through their last.fm artist/track tags and it could also allow some interesting applications wrt smart playlists.
Could you advertise and annouce artwork in some ways?
It would be cool if Amarok would have a choice of many themes and tons of visual eye candy by the time 2.0 comes out.
Kind of like there was ways to get "skins" for Winamp back in the day. One site where all of the plugins and skins were listed and ranked by popularity and rating.
It would be cool if Amarok would have a choice of many themes and tons of visual eye candy by the time 2.0 comes out.
Kind of like there was ways to get "skins" for Winamp back in the day. One site where all of the plugins and skins were listed and ranked by popularity and rating.
At least in the short term, Amarok 2 will not be skinable.
It is just not something that is important enough for any of us to push other needed features for 2.0 aside to implement.
It is just not something that is important enough for any of us to push other needed features for 2.0 aside to implement.
Hi, I've tried to draw my idea about volume slider. Please take a look here:
http://blender6xx.ic.cz/view_bigimg.php5?id_image=15
The idea is that both "sliders" could be used for volume controlling. The volume (I mean how much loud it is) could be shown by filling this space by color gradient. Maybe a small scrollbar can be shown below them.
http://blender6xx.ic.cz/view_bigimg.php5?id_image=15
The idea is that both "sliders" could be used for volume controlling. The volume (I mean how much loud it is) could be shown by filling this space by color gradient. Maybe a small scrollbar can be shown below them.
Thats an interesting idea!
I think I find it a bit overwhelming, and it is not immediately clear that the areas are actually volume sliders.
Still, not a bad idea though!
I think I find it a bit overwhelming, and it is not immediately clear that the areas are actually volume sliders.
Still, not a bad idea though!
Theres one thing which my friend mentioned that puts (according to her) amarok below itunes and thats the ability to rip cds, is that function going to be implmented as a plugin anytime soon??
You can rip CDs with Amarok, it just isn't entirely intuitive how you go about doing it
http://amarok.kde.org/blog/archives/84-Rip-your-CDs-with-KIO-and-amaroK.html
http://amarok.kde.org/blog/archives/84-Rip-your-CDs-with-KIO-and-amaroK.html
With virtually every other media player out there capable of ripping CDs with the click of a button from within the program itself, Amarok's method of CD-ripping surprises me. There's no way anyone would know about this without stumbling upon that blog post.
Indeed There's a reason it's listed on the Summer of Code idea page 
There's a reason it's listed on the Summer of Code idea page
A suggestion:
My entire music collection resides on a networked storage drive. I access it using SMB. Under GNOME and Rhythmbox, I could mount the share with GNOME, then navigate to the share with Rhythmbox, and my Rhyhtmbox library got populated. I liked that things worked smoothly and as I expected them to in this regard. That was one of the only things I liked about Rhythmbox.
Under KDE and Amarok, I have to manually mount the SMB share or add it to the system's fstab. Only then can I add this music to my Amarok Collection. It would be nice if Amarok could be made aware of the shares I've set up and can see by going to Network Folders under Konqueror (Kubuntu), similar to what Rhythmbox/GNOME does. If this worked, I would have absolutely no complaints about Amarok.
My entire music collection resides on a networked storage drive. I access it using SMB. Under GNOME and Rhythmbox, I could mount the share with GNOME, then navigate to the share with Rhythmbox, and my Rhyhtmbox library got populated. I liked that things worked smoothly and as I expected them to in this regard. That was one of the only things I liked about Rhythmbox.
Under KDE and Amarok, I have to manually mount the SMB share or add it to the system's fstab. Only then can I add this music to my Amarok Collection. It would be nice if Amarok could be made aware of the shares I've set up and can see by going to Network Folders under Konqueror (Kubuntu), similar to what Rhythmbox/GNOME does. If this worked, I would have absolutely no complaints about Amarok.
To access your shares without smb mount, you simply enter smb: / in the address bar which will be listed all the working groups. Or you can put the full address smb:/server/share. You can use this in any application KDE.
Sorry for the poor English .......
Sorry for the poor English .......
Thanks for your work, and your patience in putting up with all kinds of comments.
I am quite excited about the prospect of Amarok 2, but I am somewhat confused about one of your comments:
--When you said that you are encouraging the use of dynamic playlists, you cite them as one reason for the new playlist display. I currently use the suggested songs for dynamic playlists, but I rarely have artists from one album consecutively in my list. Consequently, I imagine a big stack of album art (one per song) in my playlist. That sounds cluttered to me.
I hope I am wrong. Can you enlighten me?
Thanks again,
-Fry-
I am quite excited about the prospect of Amarok 2, but I am somewhat confused about one of your comments:
--When you said that you are encouraging the use of dynamic playlists, you cite them as one reason for the new playlist display. I currently use the suggested songs for dynamic playlists, but I rarely have artists from one album consecutively in my list. Consequently, I imagine a big stack of album art (one per song) in my playlist. That sounds cluttered to me.
I hope I am wrong.
Can you enlighten me?Thanks again,
-Fry-
No, you are quite right, that is how the 1.4.x implementation of dynamic playlists would populate the playlist.
First of all, with the limited number of tracks that a dynamic playlist adds, this is most likely not too bad.
But, as the Amarok 2 version for dynamic playlists have not been implemented yet, we will of course keep this in minf. This might mean that we tweak the way dynamic playlists work ( or add an option to play nicer with the new playlist somehow ) or it might mean that we tweak the new playlist to handle this in a nicer way.
One thing I have been pondering lately is actually making the album cover a bit smaller for single tracks ( as this is really what defines the size of each track item in the playlist ). As this might make a list full of single tracks look a bit better...
First of all, with the limited number of tracks that a dynamic playlist adds, this is most likely not too bad.
But, as the Amarok 2 version for dynamic playlists have not been implemented yet, we will of course keep this in minf. This might mean that we tweak the way dynamic playlists work ( or add an option to play nicer with the new playlist somehow ) or it might mean that we tweak the new playlist to handle this in a nicer way.
One thing I have been pondering lately is actually making the album cover a bit smaller for single tracks ( as this is really what defines the size of each track item in the playlist ). As this might make a list full of single tracks look a bit better...
I like the idea for smaller cover art for single tracks.
Good luck.
-Fry-
Good luck.
-Fry-
I'm having some issues with Amarok 2, that mainly being my collection won't populate. I have to browse folders to play anything. However, considering that it IS playing music, and its pre-alpha, i am still impressed.
One minor thing that bothers me as far as looks go is the void like area on either side of the back\forward\pause\stop buttons. I'm not an artist and i don't think it would be a good idea to just throw 'filler' in there. It would look just as bad, or worse, but it looks very empty to my eye. I wish i had a suggestion, but i can't think of a thing. I considered some kind of ticker with info on whats currently playing, or whats playing next, but that would just repeat information, which is pointless. Maybe just add a few more buttons? Drop down settings menu?
As for the volume slider,maybe something like the amarok blue wolf icon in the lower right, to the right of the clear\save\undo\redo\star buttons. When you mouse over the wolfs head, have a pop-up that looks like sound waves coming out of the wolfs jaw, gradually getting larger, with a slider that fills in the space between the sound wave art? shrug At least no one would say you're ripping off XYZ media player!
In any event, the work going into this is much appreciated. Everyone involved is doing excellent work. Thank you.
One minor thing that bothers me as far as looks go is the void like area on either side of the back\forward\pause\stop buttons. I'm not an artist and i don't think it would be a good idea to just throw 'filler' in there. It would look just as bad, or worse, but it looks very empty to my eye. I wish i had a suggestion, but i can't think of a thing. I considered some kind of ticker with info on whats currently playing, or whats playing next, but that would just repeat information, which is pointless. Maybe just add a few more buttons? Drop down settings menu?
As for the volume slider,maybe something like the amarok blue wolf icon in the lower right, to the right of the clear\save\undo\redo\star buttons. When you mouse over the wolfs head, have a pop-up that looks like sound waves coming out of the wolfs jaw, gradually getting larger, with a slider that fills in the space between the sound wave art? shrug At least no one would say you're ripping off XYZ media player!
In any event, the work going into this is much appreciated. Everyone involved is doing excellent work. Thank you.
I'm having the same problem with my collection not populating. The albums get listed, but no songs from them show in the collection browser. I tried using amarokcollectionscanner on the command line and the songs appear there (but I don't know if that actually means anything). I'm also wondering if not having anything in my collection is the reason nothing appears in the context view?
Either way, the stuff that does work is awesome and I can't wait to see what the stable release looks like.
Either way, the stuff that does work is awesome and I can't wait to see what the stable release looks like.
Will amarok2 have a small player window like 1.x?
I use the playlist windows only a few times, for play/pause/stop I would really like somkething smaller like the good and old winamp
I use the playlist windows only a few times, for play/pause/stop I would really like somkething smaller like the good and old winamp
This feature was taken out of Amarok 2 a while ago.
That said at aKademy 2007 we drew up plans for the playlist window to have a minimal mode.
That said at aKademy 2007 we drew up plans for the playlist window to have a minimal mode.
I don't if someone already had this idea (i didn't read all the replies...), but here it goes.
The volume bar could be "hidden" inside the main controls. The little blue line would be below the main controls, maybe a little bigger for intuitiveness, or with a "speaker" icon next to it. Then, the controls background would fill up, from left to right, reflecting the current volume.
Or maybe this idea could be used for the song progress bar...
Great work. Looking forward for the release of Amarok2!
The volume bar could be "hidden" inside the main controls. The little blue line would be below the main controls, maybe a little bigger for intuitiveness, or with a "speaker" icon next to it. Then, the controls background would fill up, from left to right, reflecting the current volume.
Or maybe this idea could be used for the song progress bar...
Great work. Looking forward for the release of Amarok2!
Fantastic work, a huge thank you to everyone who's contributed to Amarok over the years.
I was wondering if we are going to see the return of the old equaliser / visualisation widget in Amarok2? If there are no plans already perhaps the space either side of the play buttons would be suitable? Just a suggestion.
I was wondering if we are going to see the return of the old equaliser / visualisation widget in Amarok2? If there are no plans already perhaps the space either side of the play buttons would be suitable? Just a suggestion.
Very Cool and hot Stuff! Respect! Looking forward to have it in a stable version.
I have already liked the last.fm integration in amaroK 1 for submitting played tracks, which allows really nice charts. And of course the suggestions.
I think with amaroK 2 is even getting better. Last.fm is one of the Web2.0 ways to explore new music. Use more features with one click within amaroK is cool outlook.
I think with amaroK 2 is even getting better. Last.fm is one of the Web2.0 ways to explore new music. Use more features with one click within amaroK is cool outlook.
Please tell me whether amarok 2 play files in a format ape
This is as ugly as sin and suffers from EVERYTHING BEING WAY TOO BIG UNNECESSARILY syndrome. Looks like forking the current Amarok is the way to go, as it's the only half-decent player on Linux.
I wonder if the name "Korama" is taken...
I wonder if the name "Korama" is taken...
He... I am not even going to pretend that I am offended by your post, for that it simply does not have enough substance.
As for forking the stable branch, go right ahead! Do remember that it is still actively maintained though, and no one is forcing you to use Amarok 2.
Oh, and you don't think that we could possible still be making some fairly major visual changes as Amarok 2.0 has not even been released as an alpha yet?
As for forking the stable branch, go right ahead! Do remember that it is still actively maintained though, and no one is forcing you to use Amarok 2.
Oh, and you don't think that we could possible still be making some fairly major visual changes as Amarok 2.0 has not even been released as an alpha yet?
It's hard to give anything of substance when there isn't a single change I agree with. Do you want me to honestly say "Go back and start again from scratch"? Because, frankly, that's what needs to be done.
You've abandoned the tried and tested look and feel of every single other player out there in exchange for something that is flat-out ugly and borderline unusable. Instead of fixing the feature problems with the original Amarok such as its memory usage or its poor tagging support and instead decided a complete redesign is what's needed, despite the fact you obviously cannot design.
I can't see how I'm supposed to organise and play 15,000 MP3s on an interface which can seemingly only fit 20 tracks on the screen at once? Why do I want "more information" on what I'm playing when I, like the vast majority of people who use a music player, spend 10 seconds in my player and then minimise it? It's as though you people don't even understand how people actually /use/ music players. Most of the screen space should be taken up by a list of songs because /that's what you're using 99% of the time/ and the fact whoever has designed this monstrosity doesn't understand that honestly makes me wonder what the hell they've been smoking.
Curves have been added where curves shouldn't exist. Have you seen a single other application ever with curves in its UI? No? Have you wondered why that is? It's because it's extremely ugly, difficult for people to use and looks out of place in the operating system. It flat out /doesn't work/. You can't line up UI elements to match curves, toolkits (sensibly) aren't designed for that. All it does is make everything look "wonky", which is what that screenshot looks like. Nothing lines up. Nothing can be made to line up. It'd be comedic if you actually seemed to think it looked good.
Everything is big. It's the Linux disease. If in doubt, make everything utterly utterly stupidly unreasonably huge. The GNOME and KDE people are at war to see who can make things bigger and add more whitespace, and KDE with KDE4 is currently winning that battle of idiocy. Repeat with me: Bigness is bad. Excessive whitespace is bad. Bigness simply means you can fit less on the screen at once. It does not automatically make things friendlier or
You've abandoned the tried and tested look and feel of every single other player out there in exchange for something that is flat-out ugly and borderline unusable. Instead of fixing the feature problems with the original Amarok such as its memory usage or its poor tagging support and instead decided a complete redesign is what's needed, despite the fact you obviously cannot design.
I can't see how I'm supposed to organise and play 15,000 MP3s on an interface which can seemingly only fit 20 tracks on the screen at once? Why do I want "more information" on what I'm playing when I, like the vast majority of people who use a music player, spend 10 seconds in my player and then minimise it? It's as though you people don't even understand how people actually /use/ music players. Most of the screen space should be taken up by a list of songs because /that's what you're using 99% of the time/ and the fact whoever has designed this monstrosity doesn't understand that honestly makes me wonder what the hell they've been smoking.
Curves have been added where curves shouldn't exist. Have you seen a single other application ever with curves in its UI? No? Have you wondered why that is? It's because it's extremely ugly, difficult for people to use and looks out of place in the operating system. It flat out /doesn't work/. You can't line up UI elements to match curves, toolkits (sensibly) aren't designed for that. All it does is make everything look "wonky", which is what that screenshot looks like. Nothing lines up. Nothing can be made to line up. It'd be comedic if you actually seemed to think it looked good.
Everything is big. It's the Linux disease. If in doubt, make everything utterly utterly stupidly unreasonably huge. The GNOME and KDE people are at war to see who can make things bigger and add more whitespace, and KDE with KDE4 is currently winning that battle of idiocy. Repeat with me: Bigness is bad. Excessive whitespace is bad. Bigness simply means you can fit less on the screen at once. It does not automatically make things friendlier or